Laundry lot marker



Spt. 26, 1933. F. J. coUCH LAUNDRY LoT MARKER 2 sheets-sneet 1 FiledMarch 10, 1932 r. I I I I cia SePt' 26, 1933. F. J. coucH LAUNDRY LOTMARKER Filed March 10, 1932 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 ATTORNEYS Patented sept.26, 1933 w `1,9;28,84=9 LUNDRY Lo'r MARKER Forrest J.:Couch, Cincinnati,Ohio, assignor to The American Laumlry Machinery Company, Cincinnati,Ohio, a corporation of'Ohio Application March 10, 1932. Serial No.597,977

` 4'o1aims.. (c1.68 11 My invention relates to a lot or bundle marker,for ilatwork ironing machines and is designed for use particularly inconjunction with a flatwork ironing machine having in connection 5therewith an automatic bundle assortng device, such, for example, as isshown in'myV copending application, Serial' No. 493,050, filed November3, 1930. However, the lot 01' b-undle vmarker is applicable to any'ironinglmachine When laundered goodsV are presented to flat- Workironing machines, each piece is fed to the ironer separately and;` toinform the attendant at the delivery end of the machine as to the numberof pieces inthe customer-'s lot or bundle, thecustomefs name oridentification mark, and when the last piece of any customers goods has.passed through the machine, a marker of vsome sort is passed through theironer immediately after vthe last piece of that customer's goods is fedthrough the machine by the feeding operator. Different laundries havedifferent systems and different'typ'es of markers. That is, some havecloth or paper markers bearing the operator's name or number and othersare identified by a small metal clip secured to a piece of cloth.

, The objects of my invention are to provide a lot or bundlemarkerrwhich is applicable to any present laundry system by providing amarker including pockets Vor the like 'for receiving different types ofidentification means that are used in different laundries; to provide a.marker of sufiicient stiffness that'it will not easily becomelo's't'iiainong g'arments` of any texture; to provide a marker of 'the'abovetype that' willv retain its desird Shape without lapping or foldingat its fronte'dges; and 'to provide a lot or bundle marker having. meansthereon serving to trip mechanism, as in my lpre''iously mentionedcopending application, which willautomatically cause a receivingreceptacleor conveyor section to move away from the delivery end of theironing machine .when theironer'is equipped with an automatic bundleassorting`device. i i

Various other objects and advantageous features'of my invention willbeseen in the following `'description and one embodment thereof may berseen in the 'accompanying drawings where- :in similar characters ofreferenceV designate corresponding parts, and wherein:

bundle ,marker cmbodying my invention; Fig. 2 is' a top plan view ofthelotV or bundle marker; -Figj3 is a sectional view of the lot orbundle'markr er taken on the line 3-'3 of Fig. 2; Fig. 4cis`a sec-`vtional'view takenon the line- 4-4 of Fig, 2;`Fig.

Vfilled` with suitable padding Fig. lis ,a perspective view`of a laundrylot orc 5 is a view showing a lot or bundle assortng i inechanism inconjunction with the ironing parts of a flatwork ironer and with whichmy lot or bundle marker isparticularly applicable to use; and Fig. 6 isa` side elevation of the Operating means for the delivery conveyorforming a part of the mechanism shown in Fig. 5 but with the 'I partsthereof out of operative position.

In Figs. 1-4 of the drawings, I have shown a lot or bundle vmarkeradapted to be used with r the fiatwork ironing machines of a laundryconsisting of a main body portion 1 preferably made up of a single pieceof heavycanvas or like material of rectangular sha'pe and approximatelytwice Vas long as it is wide and with thetwo ad- 7,0 jacent corners 2 onthe front edge thereof, which is first to be fed into an ironingmachine, rounded substantially as shown. This rounding of the corners`2effectively prevents the material from becoming bent over on itselforfolded at the corners from constant'use and handling which will Voccurwhen the 'corners are left square or nearly so.

As shown, a'large open pocket 3V is provided .on the body portion vofIthe marker l by a piece of heavy' cahvas or the like 4 securelyfastened to ythe body portionfl by stitching or otherwise, the

piece 4 being only-stitched substantially on three sides thereoftoileave an open pocket into which lot or bundle identifying means suchas a card or the like may `be inserted and sent through 55 the ironing'machine from the goods feeder to the goodsrecever whereby thegoodsreceiver may properly identify the lot or bundle. Means are alsoprovided forl effectively holding a lot or bundle identifying means sucha's a small metal -tag or the like, 'this means consisting of a smallpocket 5 formed by stitching or otherwise securing the piece 4 to themain body portion l as at 6. To provide 'a thickened portion o'n'the lotor bundle market' Awhereby the lot or bundle marker will be effective tooperate a trpping mechanism for causing actuation of 'an ironed goodsreceiving conveyor or receptacle, a heavy piece of material 7 such ascanvas or'the like'that is somewhat smaller than the'piece 4,particularly in v width, is securely fastenedto the piece 4 by stitchingor otherwise to form` a closed pocket that is This padding isVpreferably Sheet material so that it will 'not become wadded or bunched`from' continual han- A dling. The thickened portion, as well as thepocki ets, Vare preferably located'at the rearwardedge of the lot orbundle marker, and indicati'ng'means such as the arrows 8 may beprovided on the lot or bundle marker` to advise an operator as-to :lO

for use. This apparatus is in combination with.

an ironing roll 9 and ironing chest 10, the roll and chest being of theusual type found in,a flatworkvmachine. Also, as is usual in ironingmachines of this type, atape 11- passes around* the ironing roll andbetween the roll and chest.

In the apparatus, bracket 12 is rigidly secured to each side of therearwardmost end of the chestV 10 and each bracket is provided with anupwardly extending ear 13 to which an arm 14 is pivoted as at 15. Thisarm carries the usual stripper roller 16 Vintermediate its ends, thestripper roller being mounted ona shaft journalled in the arms. A roller17 is also carried bythe arms 14 and is adapted to be driven by asprocket chain 18 traveling around a sprocket o n the shaft whichcarries the roller 17 and around a driven sprocket 19. The ironed goodsfrom between .the roll and chest passes under the roller 17 and thenfalls away from the rearwardmost end of the'chest 10 or, if necessary,is stripped Vfrom the tape 11 by the stripper roller V16. i

The goods falling away from the rearward end of the chest 10 or beingstripped from the tape 11 by the roller 16 fall into successivelypresented receptacles on a conveyor mechanism, the receptacles beingformed by plates 20 hingedlymounted lon a'conveyor 21 ,so as to overlap.and form receptacles along` the upper lap of the conveyor 21 as shownin Fig. 5, the lreceptacles continuing along the entire length of .theupper lap of the conveyor andl being successively moved forwardlybyactuatingvmechanism rendered effective. by the operation of a tripmechanism which is, in turn, rendered effectiveby the passage ofone ofthe lot or bundle markers through the ironer as will hereinafter beapparent. y

The conveyor 21 is driven by a Vpair of sprocketsA 22', one'of which visshown, and the size of the' sprcckets is such that the conveyor 21 willtravel a distance` equal to the distance. from one parti- -tion toanother on the upper lap thereof on each revolution of the sprockets. Inorder to control the operation of the conveyor 21, a trip 23`is providedthat takes' the form'of a bell' crank lever having a long and a shortarm, thetrip being pivotally mounted as at 24 on a disk 25 Vwhich is.rigidly mounted on a shaft 26. Loosely mounted on the shaft 26 a shortdistancefrom the disk 25 is'another constantly'andpositively driven disk27 :which is provided withfour pins or lugs 28 projecting from its facetoward the disk 27 and into the same vertical plane as that of the shortarm of the trip 23. The trip 23 is limited in its move- 'ment about thepivot 24 in one direction by a Vstop pin 29 and in the other directionby a stop pm 30. A spring'31 normally tends to hold the .trip 23`in aposition with the long arm thereof against the stop 30 and` with theshort arm of the trip in a ,raised position whereby it will bei in. thecircular. path of travel of the Vpins 28.

The disk27 is positivelyand constantly rotated in'a'clockwise directionand isloosely mounted on the shaft 26 with the trip23 on the disk 25,which is rigidly mounted on the shaft'26, in such position that theshort arm thereof will not contfil? with any of the pins'28 whereby theshaft 26 and sprockets 22 will not be rotated and the conveyor 21 willremain stationary.

To provide forl the lot or bundle marker to act as'a means for movingthe trip 23 to such position that the short arm thereof will be raisedinto the path of the pins 28, an arm 32 is pivotally mounted on theframe of the conveyor and has its free end arranged to be in either oftwo positions, namely, in'the path of the long arm of the trip 23 asshown in Fig. 5 wherein the short arm of the trip 23.will be moved outof the path of travel of the pins 28 and the trip held against the stop29, or out of the path' of the long arm of the trip 23 as shown in Fig.6 and in such position that the trip will be moved against the stop 30by the spring 31, which movement will cause the short arm of the trip tobe moved upwardly into the path of travel of the pins 28. As shown inthe drawings, the free end of the arm 32 is made to swing in a verticalplane out of and into the path of the trip 23 which moves the disk 25and the free endV of the arm 32 is connected by a link 33 to thev freeextending end of one of the arms 14 hereinbefore. described whereby,when 4such arm 14 is raised,rthe arm 32 will be raised and its free endlifted out of the path of the long arm of the trip 23 as shown in Fig. 6to permit the trip to be swung to the position hereinbefore described bymeans of the spring 31 to thereby bring the short arm of the trip intothe circular path of the pins 28 and operatively connect the disks25`and 27 together. The chain 18 is positioned remotely from the link 33to not interfere with the raising of the one'arm 14 and arm 32.

Since the disk 25 and sprockets 22 are rigidly mounted on the shaf't 26and the constantly driven disk 27 is loosely mounted on the shaft 26with the disks so arranged that they may be operatively i interconnectedtogether for movement of the disk 25 andv sprockets 22 in one directionby the swinging of the short arm of the trip 23 into position to beengaged by one of theV pins 28, it follows that raising of the arm 32out of the path of the long when the last piece of a customer's goodshas been fed into the feed end of the ironing machine, the operator thenfollows itimmediately with the lot or bundle marker herein described,which passes 'through the ironerand under the roller117 whereby suchrollerwill be lifted when the thickened portion of the lot or bundlemarker passes thereunder to cause the extended free end of theV arms 14to which the link 33 is connected to be moved upwardly about the pivotV150i vthe arms a sufficientdistance to release the trip 23 by movingVthe arm 32 upwardly and j out of engagement therewith as shown in Fig.6. This raising of the arm 32 will permit theshort arm of the trip 23 tomove into the path of travel of the pins 28 as hereinbefore described tooperatively connect the constantly driven loosely mounted diskV 27 withthe disk 25 rigidly mounted on the shaft 26. This will cause' the shaft26 andl sprockets 22 to be driven through one complete revolution .and

movement of the filled compartment on the conthe ironing chest and thenext succeeding compartment into registry therewith, the goods beingremoved from the compartments to any point in the travel of thecompartment along the upper lap of the conveyor.

The thickened portion of the lot or bundle marker is of such width thatit will pass entirely out from under the roller 17 prior to the disk 25and sprockets 22 making one complete revolution whereby the arms 14,link 33, and arm 32 may again move downwardly with the arm `32positioned to engage the long arm of the trip 23 before the disk 25travels through acomplete revolution whereby the long arm of the tripwill engage the free end of the arm 32 and the short arm of the trip23,wil1 be moved out of the path of the pins 28 by continued movement ofthe disk 25 which will operatively disconnect the disk 25 from the disk27.

Referring to the drawings and the preceding description, it will be seenthat I have provided a lot or bundle marker for ironing machines that isparticularly adapted for use with an ironing machine having anautomatically Operating goods assorter and conveyor in connectiontherewith.

` Likewise, it is adapted for use as a signal operating means or thelike. The lot or bundle marker embodies the advantageous feature ,ofbeing provided with means whereby it will act as a carrier for lot orbundle identification means and is of a nature to permit it to bereadily located and separated from a lot or bundle of Agoods as Well asbeing of a nature to retain its desired shape and effectiveness.

What I claim is:

1. A lot or bundle marker for use with flatwork ironing machines, saidmarker comprising pad means adapted to be passed through an ironingmachine to indicate when a lot or Vbundle has been ironed, said padmeans including means whereby it may act as a carrier for lot or bundleidentifying means from one side of the ironing machine to the other, andmeans whereby said pad means will be effective to cause actuation of alot or bundle assorter and conveying means or the like.

2. A lot or bundle marker for use with flatwork ironing machines, saidmarker comprising pad means adapted to be passed through an ironingmachine to indicate when a lot or bundle has been ironed, said pad meansincluding means whereby it may act as a carrier for lot or bundleidentifying means from one side of the ironing machine to the other andhaving rounded front edge corner portions on theV body thereof, andmeans whereby said pad means will be effective to cause actuation of alot or bundle assorter and conveying means or the like.

3. A lot or bundle marker for use with fiatwork ironing machines, saidmarker comprising pad means adapted to be passed through an ironingmachine to indicate when a given lot or bundle has been ironed, said padmeans including means whereby it may act as a carrier for lot or bundleidentifying means and having a portion greater in thickness than usualflatwork whereby to be effective to actuate trip mechanism associated100 or cooperating with the ironing machine and normally unafiected byilatwork of usual thickness.

4. A lot or bundle marker for use With flatwork ironing machines, saidmarker comprising pad 105 means adapted to be passed through an ironingmachine to indicate When a given lot or bundle has been ironed andhaving the corner portions of its forward edge in rounded form, said padmeans including means whereby it may act as a carrier for lot or bundleidentifying means and having a portion greater in thickness 'than usualfiatwork whereby to be effective to actuate trip mechanism associatedwith the ironing machine and normally unaifected by fiatwork of usual115thickness.

FoRREs'r J. coUCH.

